Three dead, several injured after attack by suspected Shabaab militants in Lamu

 

                                                         President Uhuru
In Summary

• According to the officer, heavily armed attackers suspected to be Al-Shabaab militants raided the village and carried out the killings of the three and also injured others.
• A village headman from Pandanguo who spoke to the Nation by phone said he had also received information at around 4.30am Sunday that there was an attack going on between Kaisari and Jima villages in Pandanguo.
• Efforts to contact senior officers in Lamu County for their comments on the latest attack were futile as their phones went unanswered.

By KALUME KAZUNGU
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Three people have been confirmed dead, several injured and a house torched at Kaisari Village in...
Pandanguo, Lamu County after a Sunday morning attack by suspected Al-Shabaab militants.

According to a police officer who talked to the Nation from the scene on Sunday and requested not to be named as he is not authorised to speak to the media, heavily armed attackers suspected to be Al-Shabaab militants raided the village and carried out the killings of the three and also injured others.

The officer also said that the number of dead and was expected to rise since officers on the ground said there was a possibility that other bodies were yet to be retrieved.

“I have been on the ground. We have recovered bodies of three people who were killed this morning. One was beheaded, another one was burnt to death when they set his house on fire. The third one is a local brewer who was gunned down atop a Mkoma tree where he had gone to tap wine.

“As we speak, we also have a survivor who was shot four times in the hand and is currently admitted to Mpeketoni Sub County Hospital. Kenya Defence Forces soldiers and police officers are on the ground,” said the officer.

The officer said that the attackers were speaking in Somali.

“According to the survivor and other witnesses, the attackers were speaking Somali and they kept shouting ‘kale kale,’ which translated means ‘come,’ he said.

A village headman from Pandanguo who spoke to the Nation by phone and also requested anonymity said he had also received information at around 4.30am Sunday that there was an attack going on between Kaisari and Jima villages in Pandanguo.

“I was also informed that some villagers were taken hostage by the suspected Al-Shabaab militants.

“I heard gunshots at around 4.30am. Then I was called by an administrator who informed me that Jima and Kaisari villages were under siege. At around 7am, we were still hearing the gunshots.

SECURITY OFFICERS DEPLOYED

“Then I got information from a police officer about the killings of some people. As we speak, a General Service Unit Land Cruiser full of officers has already passed here and is headed to the villages attacked. We are still waiting for more information,” said the headman.

It is in the same Kaisari Village where nine men were beheaded when Al-Shabaab militants staged an attack on July 16, 2014 just a day after over 60 other people were massacred by militants in Mpeketoni.

Sunday’s incident comes just days after more than six police officers were killed and four injured when a Rapid Deployment Unit (RDU) lorry carrying over 20 police officers was hit by a remotely propelled grenade at Milimani Village in Lamu East Sub County on Tuesday last week.

The attack was perpetrated by suspected Al-Shabaab militants.

This also comes in the wake of the Linda Boni Security operation that is currently underway and which has entered its fifth month since it was launched by Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph Nkaissery on September 11, 2015.

The purpose of the operation is to flush out Al-Shabaab militants said to be hiding in the expansive Boni Forest.

Efforts to contact senior officers in Lamu County for their comments on the latest attack were futile as their phones went unanswered.